A good thing is when the have cases of “imported” Sapporo Draft (aka Premium) (kara サッポロビール株式会社 Sapporo Bīru Kabushiki-gaisha) on sale for $13. (Yeah, imported from Ontario, Canada(!), but I guess an import is an import.)

Anyway, enjoy your Meat Days, San Francisco!

Homer: Are you saying you’re never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?

*I haven’t a clue on how to best fix earthquake-unsafe J-Town. Before the Great Recession, the solution was going to be something like 500 new condos in the nabe, each with a $100,000 fee tacked on to help pay for a new Japantown Garage and whatnot. But some businesses inside the horrible mall buildings are thriving and some are not, so it’s not an easy call to have a giant implosion and just start over. And, up to now, there’s been no money for that kind of thing anyway…

Only one lane of Geary Boulevard was shut down to traffic today, as opposed to all four during the last go around: Click to expand:

Fifty years of resistance, 1959-2009:

The horn-honking of solidarity with the protesting crowd from passing traffic was infectious:

A perspective on public relations:

From the Chinese point of view there are perfectly legitimate internal communications (or propaganda, if you prefer) reasons to designate this holiday. It’s a high-profile re-statement of the official Chinese “emancipation” narrative on the annexation of Tibet, an important pillar of legitimacy and a cornerstone of the messaging that is used to this day to justify that annexation to both internal and external audiences. Unfortunately, loaded with unintentional irony as it is, “Serf Emancipation Day” is going to enter foreign ears like a butcher knife coated in rock salt.”

Hopefully people from one side won’t start hanging themselves off of the consulate 30 feet in the air and people from the other side won’t cut any ropes, you know, the way it went down last year on Laguna Street.

The signs in the windows on Post Street tell the story – MEAT DAY is coming this Sunday, March 29th. If this is all you can see, then it’s tough to figure out the meaning. The only clues are bull, rooster, and pig icons along with Chinese characters that literally mean “meat day” or “day of meat.”